Public Statements

Kerry Statement on Obama Privacy Bill of Rights

Statement

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) released the following statement today in response to the Obama Administration's call for an Online Privacy Bill of Rights:

"This is an important statement of priorities. The Administration expects corporations that collect, use, or distribute personal information to do it in a way that's fair and smart. Senator McCain and I have been building support for our bi-partisan approach for almost two years and I welcome the Administration's call for a baseline code of conduct wholly consistent with what we've been promoting. Now let's get something done. It's terrific that the advertising industry plans voluntarily to strictly and honestly comply with Americans' wishes not to be tracked. But voluntary compliance does not replace the need for a new law. Until Congress gets its act together and does its job, Americans won't have the guaranteed protection of industry-wide compliance. We'll instead continue operating in an online wild west. Since the 1990's, Congress has been talking about this issue and complaining about abuses but doing little to stop them. Instead of continuing the now monthly exercise of publicly scolding companies, we need to make Congress establish common sense rules of the road that protect consumers."